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This weekend, there’s a place where a man can feel at home with a T-shirt that asks “GOT PENS?”

About 1,000 people are gathering in Dublin for the Ohio Pen Show, an annual event that draws collectors of new and antique writing instruments.

“It’s overwhelming,” said Nicole Kuisel, 21, a Columbus State Community College student who attended with her grandfather yesterday. “You never would have guessed there are that many pens in the world.”

She was one of the youngest in a crowd made up largely of pen enthusiasts in their 50s or older — people who read magazines such as Pen World and frequent pen message boards. Many know each other from years of attending this event and the dozen or so like it across the country.

The show, held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, concludes today with a session that runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $5.

Mike Little, 67, of the Phoenix area, had a thick, white beard and a black T-shirt with “GOT PENS?” in white letters. He was helping one of the exhibitors.

“I wear this when I’m at the grocery store and people come up to me and say they’ve got pens they want to sell,” he said. The back of the shirt says, “I BUY OLD PENS.”

Pen prices ranged from a few dollars to $100,000. The most expensive item was a Maki-e pen, a hand-painted style from Japan that a Canadian dealer had for sale.

Most attendees are interested in fountain pens, a style best known for ink reservoirs and metal nibs. They’re also partial to the art of calligraphy, and they lament that many schools no longer emphasize handwriting.

Central Ohio is home to one of the few fountain-pen manufacturers left in the country, Bexley Pen Inc., which has offices on the Far West Side.

The company’s founder, Howard Levy, 58, is a celebrity of sorts at the show. He’s been in business since 1993 and was a pen enthusiast long before that. His company pre-dates the Ohio show, now in its 18th year.

“It’s like a family setting, a social get-together, as well as business,” Levy said. He and his three employees make pens for retailers across the country and abroad. His prices begin at about $100 for a basic model.

While he is a pen-making veteran, the show also had a relative newcomer. Brian Gray, 40, of Milan in Erie County, started Edison Pen Co. in 2007. He came from the pharmaceutical industry, where a layoff led him to turn his hobby into a career. Now, he doesn’t think he could ever go back to an office job.

“I’ve seen the light of day,” he said.

His wife, Andrea Gray, 32, is co-owner of the business. She wasn’t a pen enthusiast at first, but she has come to appreciate the qualities of writing instruments that fascinate so many people. The company gets many of its sales from social media, directly selling to customers.

The show’s founder and organizer is Terry Mawhorter, 66, of Zanesville. This year, he has about 180 exhibitors and attendees from as far away as Israel and Spain, he said.

“As you may have already observed, there is a lot of interest in fountain pens in Ohio,” he said.